Mmmm… sweet and salty. A classic, yet unlikely flavor combination. At first glance, the union of sweet and salty sounds strange, doesn’t it? It doesn’t sound like it would taste good, but it does and we love it!
The savory flavor of salt enhances the sweetness of some of our favorite treats, just try sprinkling a little salt on your watermelon this summer, you’ll definitely notice a difference!
These are some fairly common examples of sweet and salty flavor combinations:

Fruit and cheese plates

Chocolate covered pretzels (or wetzels as they’re known at Winans)

Trail mix with nuts and chocolate or dried fruit

French fries dipped in a Wendy’s frosty (it’s an Ohio thing!)

Peanuts and Dr. Pepper (it’s a southern thing!)

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches…

You get the idea right? We could go on but we’re starting to get hungry!
The combination of salt with sweet, buttery caramel is one of our favorite new flavor pairings! This tasty union has seen a surge in popularity in the past 10 years. Salted caramels are a traditional treat hailing from Brittany, France. In the late 1990s and early 2000, American chefs became interested in the flavor combo after French pastry chef Pierre Hermé invented a salted caramel macaron.
This isn’t to say that salted caramel as a flavor was completely unfamiliar to Americans. Just think of chocolate turtles (like Winans’ wurtles), pralines and Cracker Jack, which was created in 1893.
We’ve been making caramels for over 50 years at Winans. We still use Max Winans’ original recipe for buttery rich and chewy caramels. For our sea salt caramels, which we debuted 5 years ago, we use fine sea salt instead of the regular salt in the caramel recipe. After the caramel is cooked in our copper kettles, we pour it onto steel tables to cool. Once fully cooled, we cut the caramels into bite-sized rectangles and cover them in milk or dark chocolate. While the chocolate is still warm and melted, we hand sprinkle a touch of Mediterranean sea salt on each one. Just a touch of salt to bring out a little extra sweetness.
Once the caramels run through a cooling tunnel they’re ready to be packaged into gift boxes or sent in stock boxes for filling the candy cases in our stores.
You could enjoy your sea salt caramel on its own, but if you’re also going to get coffee during your next trip to Winans, why not pair your brew with your sweet and salty treat? We recommend pairing a sea salt caramel with our single origin Indonesian Sumatra or Monsoon Malabar coffee or our Mo Joe Blend or Mokka Java Blend. These coffees have earthy notes that pair well with the sweet, buttery flavors of caramel. You also can’t go wrong with a salted caramel latte or our Salted Caramel flavored coffee!

National Pretzel Day is April 26th! To celebrate, Winans is offering 25% off all chocolate-covered pretzels Tuesday April 26th through Sunday May 1st!To help you get in the spirit of National Pretzel Day, here are some fun facts about one of our favorite snacks:

The first National Pretzel Day was declared in 1983 by Robert S. Walker. Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell re-declared the holiday in April of 2003.

Pretzels are one of the world’s oldest snacks, dating back to 610 AD in Southern France. Monks folded thin scraps of dough into the shape of a child’s arms folded in prayer. They added salt and baked them, making the first pretzels.

Pretzels were originally called pretiola, which is Latin for “little reward.” Next the name evolved to brachiola, which means “little arms” in Italian. When pretzels made their way to Austria and Germany they were called “bretzels.”

The knotted shape of pretzels has represented many different things, from the Holy Trinity in the Catholic church to the bond of marriage. It’s where the phrase “tying the knot” originated!

Hard pretzels are a more recent snack. They are thought to have been created in the late 1600s when a baker in Pennsylvania forgot a batch of pretzels in the oven. The pretzels were dark and hard, but the baker tried them anyway and loved how crunchy they were.

Pretzels were made by hand until 1935 when an automated machine was created, allowing factory bakeries to make 245 pretzels per minute!

Southeastern Pennsylvania is considered the birthplace of the American pretzel industry, and many pretzel bakeries are still located in the area. Pennsylvania produces 80% of the nation’s pretzels.

The pretzels sold in the US today amounts to $550 million – that’s a lot of pretzels!

You could celebrate National Pretzel day by enjoying a soft pretzel or a crunchy, honey mustard flavored pretzel, or even one of the many different shaped hard pretzels (sticks, twisted, square or even bites) – but here at Winans we have an even better idea!Celebrate National Pretzel day with Winans’ wetzels! Our wetzels are chocolate covered pretzels and we make them fresh just for you. Enjoy the sweet and salty combination of dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate on a crunchy pretzel. We make large twisted wetzels, mini twisted wetzels and wetzel sticks. We also offer a variety of milk chocolate twisted wetzels with fun confections like M&Ms or peanut butter chips! We think Stanley Hudson, of NBC’s The Office, would be proud! He’s able to get through 364 mundane days selling paper for Dunder Mifflin just knowing that Pretzel Day is on its way.There’s no wrong way to celebrate National Pretzel Day with Winans! We’re offering 25% off all wetzels Tuesday April 26th through Sunday May 1st!

Spring is almost here and the bunnies are back at Winans! We’ve been busy at the factory making marshmallow, bagging up novelty Easter candies and of course, making lots and lots of chocolate bunnies!Winans has been making chocolate molds for over 50 years! Chocolatiers began using chocolate molds in the mid-1830s in France. These molds were made of sheet copper, stamped with geometric shapes to make solid chocolate candies in mass quantities. Prior to the advent of chocolate molds, chocolate was consumed in liquid form only. As the popularity of molded chocolate rose, small animals and other figures were also created in mold form.
Max Winans, founder of Winans, used metal molds from Germany. Many of the metal molds that Winans owns were made by Anton Reiche. Some are just marked as being from West Germany. Anton Reiche is a famous mold manufacturer from Dresden, Germany. He founded his mold company in 1870. German mold manufacturers excelled at making chocolate molds in a variety of sizes with incredible detail and designs. Molds of sitting rabbits or bunnies are the most common of the antique chocolate molds.
We still make many of the molds that Max Winans first made at Winans in the 1960s, but we no longer use the original metal molds. Max took the metal molds and had them recast in plastic. This allows us to make more bunny molds at a time and results in a higher quality mold.
In March of 1978, the Piqua Daily Call published an article about the large collection of chocolate molds Max had acquired over the years. Check out the article, Molds / More to them than chocolate!
Chocolate picks up any imperfections in the mold. Over time metal molds lose shine and are easily scratched, both the lack of shine and scratches would show up in the chocolate. With the plastic reproduction of our original molds we are able to carry on Max’s traditions while still creating beautifully molded chocolate! Our sitting and standing bunnies, as well as our bunnies with backpacks, walking sticks, carts, baskets (as well as Race Car Bunny!) are all cast from our original metal molds. The Floppy Ear Bunny and the Big Eye Bunny are much younger than our other bunnies.Since we no longer use most of our original metal molds, we have them on display in our Hometown Store in Piqua! If you look closely at the molds, you might notice their manufacturing mark (many of them were made in Germany by Anton Reiche) or see where Max soldered the clips onto the mold. Most molds are multiple pieces and have to be clamped together with clips. To keep track of his clips and make the molds easier to use, Max soldered the clips onto one of the pieces of the mold. Today our plastic molds are held together with magnets!In order to make our molded bunnies today, warm, tempered chocolate is poured into each mold. Then the molds have to be shaken in order to remove bubbles and evenly distribute the chocolate. The chocolate molds sit in a cold, refrigerated room until the chocolate is solidified and can be removed from the molds. Sometimes excess chocolate has to be trimmed or shaved from the bunny before it can be packaged and sent to a store or a customer at home. Our bunnies are available in milk, dark and white chocolate. A few of our bunnies are also made in peanut butter. Our biggest bunny is Big Max, named after Max Winans! He weighs in at 20 pounds and was first introduced in 2013. We hope that one of our many molded bunnies will be part of your family’s Easter tradition this year!If you want to learn more about chocolate molds, check out these resources below:Das Schokoladenformen Museum: The Chocolate Molds MuseumDad’s Follies: Antiques & Collectibles Metal Chocolate Molds—The BeginningThe Golden Glow of Christmas Past: Vintage Christmas Collectibles Christmas Chocolate/Candy Molds

Mmmm… brownies with Winans candies? Yes, please! These fabulous brownies are super chocolate-y with a texture in between cake-y and fudge-y. They’re also full of hidden Winans deluxe Valentine’s mix in festive red, white and pink colors!

They’re super easy to make and are delicious. We’ve got the recipe for you below. Use it for any of your leftover Winans candy (we’re kidding, obviously, hide some of your Winans until you’re ready to make these brownies). We think it’s delicious with any of our seasonal deluxe mixes!

Winans Valentine’s Surprise Brownies
Makes 9×13 pan of brownies (24 individual brownies)
Ingredients:
Canola oil
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour*
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon espresso, finely ground
½ cup Winans deluxe Valentine’s mix candies, cut larger pieces into small half-bite pieces
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 baking dish with foil so that it extends up the sides and over the edges of the pan. Coat the foil generously with canola oil. Place the chopped unsweetened chocolate and butter into a small pot over medium-low heat. Stir until both the chocolate and butter are melted. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, baking powder and salt until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla, whisk well. Add the melted chocolate mixture.
Stir in the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and espresso powder until smooth. Pour half of the batter and spread evenly into the prepared pan. Arrange the candy pieces on top of the batter. cut side down. Be sure to leave a little space between each candy piece and the sides of the pan. Pour the remaining half of the batter and spread to cover the candy. Smooth the surface.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top of the brownie is set and the edges have pulled away from the side of the pan and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Lift the brownies from the pan using the extended foil edges and place on a cutting board. Cut the brownies into 2 inch squares. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week (if they last that long!).
*To make this recipe gluten-free, use 1 ⅓ cup gluten-free all purpose flour (we recommend Bob’s Red Mill) and 1 teaspoon xanthan gum instead of regular wheat all-purpose flour. Follow the same directions as above.
Adapted from GF Contraband Candy Brownies from This Ohio Life.

What’s a Wurtle? Wurtles are Winans’ version of the whimsically named chocolate turtle.Chocolate turtles were created by Johnson’s Candy Company in 1918 when a salesman pointed out a candy to one of the candy dippers, who said that it looked like a turtle. Johnson’s Candy Company began selling these chocolate covered pecan and caramel treats as “turtles” shortly after. Today many candy companies offer their own version of the chocolate turtle, some are even made in turtle shaped chocolate molds! At Winans we make our wurtles the old fashioned way, by hand, with soft and chewy caramel, delicious roasted nuts and smooth milk or dark chocolate. The caramel is cooked in our original copper kettles, then poured into a depositor which drops evenly spaced dollops of caramel onto wooden trays of roasted nuts. The caramel is allowed to settle before the final step: the chocolate enrober! Each morsel of caramel and nuts is sent down the enrober to be fully enveloped in Winans rich milk or dark chocolate. The result? A delicious combination of our buttery, chewy caramel nut patty covered in chocolate: a wurtle.

Milk and Dark Chocolate Cashew Wurtles

Chocolate covered pecans have been a popular chocolate convection since the early 1900s, which might explain why our milk chocolate pecan wurtles are our most popular wurtle! In addition to pecan, Winans wurtles are also made with almonds and cashews.To discover your favorite wurtle, we recommend trying one of each of our six wurtles, just to be sure!:

Milk Chocolate Pecan

Dark Chocolate Pecan

Milk Chocolate Cashew

Dark Chocolate Cashew

Milk Chocolate Almond

Dark Chocolate Almond

Winans loves wurtles so much we even offer an espresso, frappuccino and hot chocolate version! The next time you’re at one of our locations, ask for a wurtle, to drink! Made with chocolate, caramel and praline pecan syrups, this sweet drink can be made as a latte with espresso, a cold blended drink with toddy or as a hot chocolate drink with steamed milk. Topped with whipped cream and a chocolate caramel drizzle – this decadent treat perfectly compliments its namesake! New this year, Winans is roasting Wurtle flavored coffee beans! These beans, flavored with chocolate, caramel and pecan are an easy way to enjoy a wurtle every day in your morning cup of joe!Come and see us soon: it’s all about the Wurtle at Winans!

Dark chocolate, like Winans Mesocacao chocolate, is a healthy indulgence you can include in your New Year’s Resolutions to be healthier in 2016. Mesocacao is a single origin (bean to bar) chocolate line that Winans uses to make delicious chocolate bars. Our very own Joe Reiser has visited the cacao farms in Honduras and Nicaragua to help with the process of transforming raw cacao into chocolate. Cacao has many health benefits and the best way to get a high dose of cacao is to try our Mesocacao chocolates. These lovely chocolate bars, molded with an intricate, geometric cocoa pod design, have the highest cacao content of all the chocolate Winans offers. Mesocacao bars are a great way to experience chocolate in its purest form. Joe Reiser, Winans owner, has a personal relationship with the cacao farmers and helped produce the first batch of this unique chocolate in Honduras. Nothing extra like preservatives, lecithin or additional sweeteners are added to the chocolate before they reach your palette. The taste of the Mesocacao chocolate is fantastic with a wonderful texture and consistency. The Honduran chocolate is fruity with notes of dates and cranberries while the Nicaraguan chocolate has more of a nutty taste, reminiscent of a French roast. In case you need more encouragement, these are just some of the benefits of cacao:

Improves mood: cacao increase the amount of time anandamide, nicknamed “the bliss molecule” stays in the body. Dark chocolate also decreases the production of stress hormones in the body.

Contains antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Cacao is rich in zinc and copper, both key minerals for our immune system, as well as including flavonoids, which help prevent LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) from building up in the arteries.

Improves cardiac response: cacao has theobromine and theophylline which increase the efficiency of heart muscle, can reduce blood pressure, and has both anti-inflammatory and anti-asthmatic compounds.

Improves brain function: cacao contains the antioxidants known as flavonols, which increase blood flow to the brain. Cacao also has high levels of sulfur and magnesium, which help us remain focused and alert.

Wishing you a safe and healthy, happy new year with Winans Chocolates & Coffees!

The information presented in this blog is offered for educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as personal medical advice. This information is not medical advice and should not be treated as such.